Presentation Instructions

All papers in this year’s RSS will be presented as a short talk and
poster. To find the time of your talk, please see the program. The
format of presentations is the same as the previous years. For
example, video recordings from RSS 2014 presented in this format are
available here for your reference.

If you have questions after reading the instructions below, please
contact Henrich Kolkhorst (Presentation Chair) for issues
regarding short talks or posters.

Short Talks

Short talks run a maximum of 4 minutes, aided by a pre-prepared video.

Each session will consist of 5 paper presentations. First, the
4-minute presentations will be presented in sequence; no questions
will be taken during this time. Next, there will be a common 10-minute
question period for all papers presented in that session. Presenters
should introduce themselves to the session chair at least 10 minutes
before the session starts. Conference personnel will be there to
help. All presenters will return to the stage for the common question
and answer session after the last presentation in the session.

4-Minute Video for Short Talks

You will have a 4-minute slot to give an overview of your paper. You
must provide, in advance, a 240 second MP4 video which will play on
the conference laptop during your short talk. You cannot use your own
laptop and you will have no control over the playback of this
video. The session chair will hit “start”, and you will be coaxed off
the stage 4 minutes later!

The submission website for the videos is now available. You should
have received an email containing the adress (if not, please contact
Henrich Kolkhorst
directly). The website will close on June 14, 2018, (anywhere on
Earth). This is a strict deadline, and there will be no extension or
exception, as we need time to verify video compatibility, resolve any
potential problems, and download to the conference laptop. If you have
not uploaded the video by the deadline, you will still have your
4-minute slot, but you will not have access to slides or any other
materials that require a projector.

You can prepare your 240 second MP4 file in any manner you want. For
example, you can generate a conventional Powerpoint or Keynote talk
and export (if your software supports it) directly to MP4, or you can
use video-editing software. Target 1920x1080 or 1440x1080 at 30fps. We
do not recommend relying on audio, since there will be no opportunity
to check volume levels.

We are pleased to announce that everyone who cannot make it to
Freiburg for RSS 2019 will be able to watch all oral presentations per
livestream via the RSS youtube channel. For this purpose, your talk
will be recorded and transmitted with live video, sound, and
synchronized presentation slides on this
livestream. After RSS 2019, the presentations will be available as
on-demand videos on the RSS youtube channel. During the file upload
for the presentation video, you will be asked to agree to streaming
your presentation.

Poster Instructions

In addition to the 4 minute talks all accepted papers will be
presenting posters at afternoon poster sessions. Please mount your
posters in the morning between 8:30 and 9:00 on the day your talk is scheduled.

Poster Format

You will have a total area of 150x120cm portrait
format to mount your poster. We recommend printing posters in A0. We
recommend not using fonts smaller than 24pt on the posters, and titles
to be at least size 72pt up to 96pt.

Poster Sessions

Poster sessions will run from 3:30pm-5:00pm on Monday and Wednesday,
and 4:00pm-5:30pm on Tuesday. Posters will be presented on the same
day as their corresponding spotlight talks. Posters of the Best Paper
Nominees will be presented in Monday’s poster session.

Multimedia extras

Space constraints at the poster session restrict
us from providing tables to sit laptops on to play videos associated
with the work. If you feel videos are necessary to help your poster
presentation we recommend bringing your own hand-held device to
display them, such as a tablet or phone.

Additional Suggestions

The RSS Foundation posted a letter to the
RSS community in November of 2013. One part of this letter contained
helpful tips for short talks:

Avoid high-density slides. The point of the slides is not to remind
you, the speaker, of what you wanted to say. Slides are a visual aid
for you to facilitate making an argument. A simple heuristic: only
put on your slides what you would write or draw on a board if you
were giving the talk without slides.

Practice. Almost everyone will benefit from multiple practice
sessions (some of which ideally with an audience). Your goal in
practicing is to be comfortable with what you plan to say on every
slide without attempting to memorize a rigid script.

When time is up, stop. No one wants to cut you off in mid-sentence,
but the schedule does not allow for “grace periods”. Be done when
the timer hits zero, and remember that no one will be upset if your
talk ends 30 seconds early.

Adding to the above, it is critical to remember that RSS is comprised
of researchers from widely different fields. Your talk should make
sense to the full audience, not only the subset in your specialized
area.